The Kreutzer Sonata

What it is

The Kreutzer Sonata is a novella written by Leo Tolstoy, completed in 1887 and published in 1889. It is told by a man, Pozdnyshev, who confesses to killing his wife out of jealousy, and uses his story to argue against physical desire and for strict chastity.

The shown edition is a title page from a 1901 printing made in Geneva, outside Russia, where the book could be published freely.

Why it matters

Russian censors banned the novella for its shocking views on marriage and sex, and it was only allowed into Tolstoy's collected works after intervention with the emperor. It was also restricted from the mail in the United States. The book shows Tolstoy's late-life turn toward extreme moral and religious ideas, which caused tension within his own marriage.

Look closer

• Why might a government want to stop people reading a work of fiction?
• What does the banning and underground spread of the book tell you about how ideas travel despite censorship?
• How might Tolstoy's own marriage have shaped the story he chose to tell?